Sandy Piggies

There were 40 pairs of those this week at the beach. Toes, that is. I was worried that there would only be maybe ten, or twenty...but both kids loved the sand. Merrick liked playing in it, and kicking it onto whatever it was I was trying to lay out on. Tirzah liked wallowing in it and dipping her sandwiches and cheez-its in it. Gross, but I guess as long as they're happy and not hurting themselves...why not? I gave up very early trying to keep the sand out of my hair and clothing. As in the first 5 minutes. I think I still have sand in my ears...
We had a blast laying around *as much laying around as you can do with these children of mine...* together and enjoying the beach. But it's good to be home again, too. I'm still a little in denial that summer is ending. *If I don't admit it...maybe it won't happen. I love summer.* It's ok though, I can relive a little bit of summer in the piles of sandy laundry that I need to wash. ;)

Sweet Sauce

I started up blogging in July of 2008. I wasn't sure if I would stick with it, thinking at first it was really kind of silly. And who really cares what I think anyways, ya know? I've since fallen in love with blogging, and love most that I can share our life in pictures as well as with words.

Sometimes, though, it stresses me out. It doesn't take a lot to stress me out...I'm that kinda girl. So I decided that I would take my first ever blog-vacay. My husband is going to be off work for a week, so I decided to be off work for a week. Um, except for the kids, and the laundry, and cooking meals, and the not-sleeping-enough thing. So maybe what I meant was I'm taking a week off from blogging. Yeah, that's what I meant. So...see y'all in about a week! ;)

"Rest: the sweet sauce of labor." - Plutarch

Don't eat pennies on Friday the 13th.

I've never really paid much attention to Friday the 13th, which is today, actually. I mean, I probably wouldn't have gotten married on one or anything, but I don't have anything against it either. I am not much of a superstitious person. I was kind of excited when I thought our son was going to be born on Halloween. Not that I am all into ghosties or creepies, but how many people can say that the entire United States stuffs their faces with candy to celebrate their birthday? *He ended up being born on Halloween Eve, actually.*


While I was doing a little research about Friday the 13th for this post, I realized that there is an actual phobia, which is named friggatriskaidekaphobia. If I could figure out how to say that, my mother would probably say "watch your mouth". I also realized that there are lots of crazy things that are considered "lucky" or "unlucky". Like crickets, for example, are lucky. I don't know about you, but I would prefer they take their lucky behinds outside. And a penny that is face down? That's bad luck...don't you dare pick it up. I don't pick up pennies anyway unless I'm afraid Tirzah is going to eat them. Which I suppose would be pretty unlucky for her.

So while I don't really believe in luck and superstitions, I figured I could still wish you all a great Friday the 13th! Don't eat any face-down pennies, k? Or crickets for that matter.

Tough Crowd

This past week was a busy one. Not like one of our normal weeks consists of me sitting around twiddling my thumbs or anything. Even before I had kids I like to stay busy, now it's not an option. ;)

It was the normal stuff...everyday running around and cleaning, playing on the floor and breaking up fights between my two enthusiastic and vocal munchkins, church activities and working at my mom's. But we also had a little extra excitement thrown in there.

Tirzah has very pointedly decided she is going to walk now. I came around the corner the other day to find her walking down the hall. What?

I was excited for her to start walking...but she could have at least warned me a little. My sister is getting married in two months, and Tizzy is the flower girl. I think she knew she had a gig coming up and wanted to be sure she put all past flower girls to shame.

Another thing this week is that, after a week of running around in underwear and eating reward popsicles, Merrick is officially (most of the time and on sometimes on weekends) potty trained. I feel like I can do anything if I can teach a kid to pee in the toilet.

I'm totally serious. That was probably harder than actually giving birth. These kids know how to keep a girl busy.

Passenger Seat

My mom would cringe if she could see this shot. She always used to rant about me putting my feet up in the dashboard and leaving smudges on her windshield. Not classy, she said. Sorry, Mom.

I realized there is a lesson to be learned from the passenger seat, though, and my smudge-leaving toes. I'm much more relaxed when I can sit over there, playing with my camera, jabbering with my kiddos, retrieving dumped toys and juice cups, while Billy does the driving.

It's the same with God and me. If I'd just let Him do the driving, let go and put my feet up, put my time and attention less on where I'm going and more on the people I'm going there with...I'd be a lot better off. I'm not so good with directions, anyway. ;)

Check out more shots at Ramblings and Photos & Communal Global :)